C-Level View :: June 27, 2007 -- Campus Technology

Student Ambassadors for Open Source: A conversation with Dinesh Bahal about the Campus Ambassador Program at Sun Microsystems.; By Mary Grush; CT: Why did Sun Microsystems establish a Campus Ambassador Program that centers around open source?; Bahal: In order for computer science or IT people to be successful, a lot today is based around open source. At Sun we've taken billions of dollars of intellectual property and open sourced it. If you look at three big things, Java, Solaris (which is the operating system that competes with Linux), and Spark (which is the chip)--we've open sourced all of that. So our message is, for [these students] to be successful at work, they've got to understand how to utilize the open source technologies, how to work in the communities associated with that, and how to give back to the communities....

U Buffalo Seeks Student Input on Info Tech Investments: The University of Buffalo is seeking direct input from a sometimes undertapped cohort in deciding where to put its future information technology investments: students, faculty, and staff. As part of its strategic planning process for 2020, UB has launched a survey of the university community as it evaluates "the information technology systems that support student academics and student life at UB, and explores ways to improve and integrate them..."
Georgia DTAE to Standardize Student Evaluations, Planning Surveys: The Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education (GDTAE), which oversees the Technical College System of Georgia, said it plans to standardize on Scantron's Class Climate and eListen systems in order to standardize the surveys it conducts with students....

Utah Names New CIO, Streamlines IT Across Campus: The University of Utah named Stephen Hess its top information technology executive. Hess, who was the school's associate academic vice president for information technology, will become chief information officer and preside over a new, unified IT department....
Academic Research Group Bolsters Leadership Team: The Computing Research Association (CRA) has picked 16 higher education computing researchers to serve as members of its first permanent Council for the Computing Community Consortium....

OpenAI Drops Sora Short-Form AI Video Platform

OpenAI is reportedly dropping Sora, its generative AI model that creates short video clips from text prompts, images, or existing video inputs. The move upends the company's December partnership with The Walt Disney Company.
Microsoft Releases Open Source AI Safety Tools for Agent Development

Microsoft released RAMPART and Clarity as open-source projects intended to help developers test AI agents earlier in the software lifecycle and turn red-team findings into repeatable engineering checks.
The Higher Ed Playbook for AI Affordability

Fulfilling the promise of AI in higher education does not require massive budgets or radical reinvention. By leveraging existing infrastructure, embracing edge and localized AI, collaborating across institutions, and embedding AI thoughtfully across the enterprise, universities can move from experimentation to impact.
OpenAI Adds Interactive Math and Science Learning Tools to ChatGPT

A new ChatGPT feature guides learners through math and science topics by showing how formulas, variables, and relationships behave in real time.